Instead he withdrew him into midfield and Rooney has prospered, attracting plaudits for his displays in a 1-1 pull with Russia and 2-1 win over Wales that have taken England to a margin of a final 16.

England’s Wayne Rooney. AP

“We are happy with a restraint he brings to a team, with a patience during times when it gets a bit raging chasing an equaliser or a winner,” Hodgson pronounced after England kick Wales in Lens.

“His prolonged cross-field passes have always been a underline of his game. He’s had that ability.

“And in particular, carrying survived some doubts about him in a rave to this contest and my preference of a 23, I’m so gratified for him that he’s shown everybody he’s still a large actor able of carrying a large change on a team.”

While he is purring now, Hodgson has indispensable convincing about a knowledge of personification Rooney in midfield, notwithstanding a fact he finished a deteriorate personification there for Manchester United.

In England’s final pre-tournament friendly, an groundless 1-0 win over Portugal on Jun 2, Rooney led a line as a executive striker in a 4-3-3 formation.

Giggs, Scholes examples

Two weeks later, he is being picked in midfield brazen of specialists like Jack Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and James Milner.

Rooney’s repositioning has unprotected a hitherto underappreciated side of his game, with his strafing passes assisting to set England’s dash opposite both Russia and Wales.

He finished 66 passes opposite Wales, some-more than any other player, and his untiring promptings determined a substructure for a late pull that culminated in Daniel Sturridge’s injury-time winner.

“Against Wales, Rooney was superb again with a approach he grabbed a diversion by a scruff of a neck and was pushing everybody forward,” former England striker Alan Shearer wrote on a BBC website.

“He and Kyle Walker during right-back have been a best players in France so far.”

Euro 2016: Hodgson contingency repair England’s faults or ready them for an early exit

Rooney’s realignment is a latest growth in a discuss about his best position that has rumbled on ever given his overwhelming presentation during a age of 16.

Not utterly a classical series nine, though not a genuine series 10 either, Rooney has twice scored over 30 goals in a deteriorate for United — in 2009-10 and 2011-12 — though has certified that he is “not an unmitigated goal-scorer”.

Last deteriorate saw him transcend Bobby Charlton as England’s record scorer, as he took his total to 52 general goals. But it was also a initial time in 12 campaigns during United that he unsuccessful to crack a 10-goal separator in a Premier League.

Rooney, 30, has prolonged pronounced that his destiny was expected to distortion in midfield and following a spell on a sidelines by injury, it was as a midfielder that he was reintegrated into United’s group by then-manager Louis outpost Gaal in April.

Flushed with a success of his conversion, he done a startling acknowledgment on a eve of a Wales diversion that he is happier with his football now than when he exploded onto a tellurian stage during Euro 2004.

“It’s a opposite purpose I’m personification now and it’s something I’m enjoying,” Rooney said. “I’m enjoying it some-more now than we was in 2004.”

Two of Rooney’s former United team-mates, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, combined years to their careers by dropping behind into deep-lying midfield roles.

Whether Rooney’s repositioning achieves a same formula might eventually be down to new United manager Jose Mourinho, though for now, a object appears to be rising on a new proviso in his career.